Ch. 26 Notes
The Great West and the Agricultural
Revolution
The Native Americans
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The pushing of Native Americans westward began during Andrew
Jackson’s presidency with the Indian Removal Act – they were pushed
out to the Great Plains because most people believed no American
settler would ever want to live there because of the lack of resources,
especially trees and water.
During this time, the Native Americans only agreed to surrender their
land on the promise that they would be left along in their new lands and
that they would be provided with supplies in their new lands.
However, as the U.S. continued to move further westward (especially
after the Civil War), these promises were broken again and again.
Eventually, warfare broke out as the Native Americans tried to protect
their lands from the encroachment of U.S settlers – with much cruelty
and atrocities committed by both sides.
The federal government responded with more troops (including the
buffalo soldiers) and will eventually defeat the Native Americans.
The Indian Wars
1. The Native Americans battled U.S. settlers
and the U.S. army to:
1. defend their lands from white invaders and
preserve their nomadic way of life.
2. to punish the U.S. for breaking treaties.
3. to avenge the savage massacres of Indians by
whites.
The Battle of
Little Bighorn
1. The Treaty of Fort Laramie
(1868) created a large Sioux
reservation.
2. In 1874 George Custer led a
“scientific” expedition into the
Black Hills of S.D. and claimed
he discovered gold.
3. As gold miners rushed into the
area, the Sioux, Cheyenne and
Arapaho went on the warpath –
the mining industry caused just
as much conflict as settlers did.
4. Custer’s 7th Cavalry went in to
subdue them but he foolishly
attacked a force of 2500 with
only 250 in Montana and was
wiped out.
5. The Native American victory
was short lived though as more
soldiers were sent into the
area.
1. In 1877 Chief Joseph tried
to lead a group of Nez
Perce off the reservation in
Oregon an into Canada.
2. The U.S. army pursued
them over a 1700 miles
before they finally caught
them and forced them
onto a reservation in
Kansas.
3. Chief Joseph later became
the leading spokesman for
the Native Americans as
they tried to defend their
way of life.
Chief Joseph
The Battle of Wounded Knee
1. The last major “conflict” between the army and the
Native Americans was the Battle of Wounded Knee.
2. The Ghost Dance was a religious ceremony
performed by the Sioux to try to reconnect them to
their past.
3. U.S. settlers feared it was a war dance and those fears
led to the U.S. army becoming more severe in forcing
the Sioux to remain on their reservation.
4. In 1890 (at Wounded Knee, South Dakota), U.S. troops
will try to disarm a group of Sioux – shots were fired
and the troops ended up massacring around 200 men,
women and children.
Wounded Knee
The Effects of the Railroad on the
Native Americans
1. The main reason the Native Americans were defeat
was the loss of the buffalo.
2. As the trains spread westward across the nation,
buffalo hunters like Buffalo Bill Cody killed buffalo by
the thousands.
3. The buffalo were used not only to feed the people
moving west – their hides were used to make leather
belts to be used in the machinery back east.
4. With the loss of the buffalo, the Plains tribes lost their
way of life – they had to remain on the reservations
where the U.S. government would provide for them.
Buffalo Bill Cody
The Dawes Severalty Act
1. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Severalty
Act to break up the reservations and provide
more land to U.S. settlers.
2. Under the Dawes Act, Native Americans were
given 160 acres of land to farm (380 to ranch)
and if they worked it for twenty-five years, they
were given their citizenship.
3. The rest of the land was sold off to U.S. settlers,
miners and railroad companies.
4. The goal of the Dawes Act was to assimilate the
Native Americans.
Assimilation
1. The Native Americans had different views on
property than the U.S. did – they didn’t believe a
man could “own” the land.
2. By trying to assimilate the Native Americans, the
U.S. government was trying to completely
change their way of life (Social Darwinism).
3. Activists like Helen Hunt Jackson, who wrote the
book A Century of Dishonor to protest the U.S.’s
treatment of the Native Americans, were firm
believers in assimilation – even though the
Native Americans opposed it.
Assimilation
The Homestead Act
1. In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act – for a
filing fee, settlers were given free land on the frontier.
2. This was different from the past when the
government used the sell of federal land to raise
revenue – thousands of farmers came westward to
participate in the land rush.
3. Those that jumped the gun were known as “sooners”.
4. Many moved into the more arid areas of the Great
Plains and had a very difficult time – many didn’t
make it and returned home to the east.
5. Eventually, dams were built to create reservoirs to use
for irrigation purposes.
1. In 1890, the U.S.
census declares that
the U.S. frontier is
closed.
2. Frederick Jackson
Turner will write a
thesis (The
Significance of the
Frontier in American
History) discussing the
importance of the
frontier on the
American way of life
and the significance of
its closing.
Frederick Jackson
Turner
Farmers on the Plains
1. As farming improved on the Great Plains, it became a
type of agribusiness.
2. As it did so, it began to be influenced by the world
market - much like cotton growers in the southeast.
3. Over time it became more and more difficult for
farmers to compete – yet farmers were slow to
organize because of their independent, individualistic
nature
4. Instead, they wanted the government to step in and
help them by getting rid of the protective tariffs and
using silver to back paper currency.
The Grange
1. The first major farmers’ organization was the
Grange (1867).
2. Their original purpose was to stimulate selfimprovement through educational and social
activities.
3. Over time though, began to push for state laws
that would regulate railroad rates and storage
fees (the states that passed these laws usually
was them declared unconstitutional by the U.S.
Supreme Court).
The Farmers’ Alliance
1. In the late 1870’s the Farmers’ Alliance was
formed.
2. Their goal was to break the grip of railroads and
manufacturers through cooperative buying and
selling.
3. The Alliance weakened itself though by not
reaching out to tenant farmers, sharecroppers
and farmworkers with no land.
4. To make matters worse, the South tried to
exclude African American farmers, which made
up a large percentage of southern farmers.
The People’s Party (the Populist)
1. In the 1890’s the Populist Party grew out of the
Farmers’ Alliance movement.
2. The Populists pushed for things like government
control of railroads, telegraphs and telephones,
income taxes, direct election of senators and more
individual participation in government through the
use of the initiative, referendum, recall and Australian
(secret) ballot.
3. Their main goal was the free coinage of silver –
cheaper money meant more in circulation – it also
meant inflation though and few other people
supported this idea.
4. The Populists were also hurt by the racial attitudes of
the south.
Coxey’s Army
1. When the Panic of 1893 hit, the Populists
blamed the Democrats because Grover
Cleveland was president.
2. A group of populists led by Jacob Coxey
marched on Washington D.C., asking the
government to use the money in the treasury
to create jobs – Cleveland refused, he even
had the leaders of the movement arrested
for trespassing on the Capital grounds.
The Pullman Strike of 1894
1. As the panic worsened, Eugene V. Debs will organize
the American Railway Union and go on strike against
the Pullman Palace Car Company.
2. The Pullman company operated a company town and
cut wages but not rents.
3. The strike paralyzed the nations railroads and
Cleveland eventually stepped in and broke the strike
(and arrested Debs) in an effort to get the mail
delivered.
4. This seemed to be proof to the Populists (and labor
unions) that the government favored big business.
William Jennings Bryan
1. One of the Populist
leaders was William
Jennings Bryan.
2. In 1896 the Democrats
will use him as their
presidential candidate
to try to defeat the
Republicans (the party
of big business).
3. They fail – three times.